It’s official: exactly one half of the Earth’s population is taking it up the tailpipe from cellphone companies. 3.3 billion mobile phone lines are currently being used, which comes out to roughly one phone line per every other person on the planet. Considering that twenty years ago only 35 countries had any form of mobile network, it’s an amazing growth rate. Today every country on the globe has some form of mobile phone service, 194 nations each with its own networks. Forget the Internet, the mobile revolution is far more important. 3.3 billion mobile accounts: 1 for every 2 earthlings [Network World] → Read More
Zune hackers have done what was once thought impossible: They’ve developed a way to change the background of the Zune desktop software. A team of over 200 hackers spent the better part of the summer on the project, with lead coder TarXin2 stating, “It was hard work, but worth it.” Ok, not really, but if you want to really “make it you”, you can, and Cesar over at Zune Insider has the linkage. Kudos, Zune Community (Or “Changing the Background Image on your Desktop Software”) [Zune Insider] → Read More
If you’re in a theater or someplace else where an unexpected call would mean embarrassment, you can turn your phone off. Sure, you could, but you’re a geek. You need a better way to go off the grid. Brando’s got your back with the “Black Hole Phone Bag”, a phone bag that blocks incoming and outgoing radio transmissions, effectively taking your phone off the network. Genius! No, really, this is a real product that makes absolutely no sense, and at $12, it doesn’t have to. Black Hole phone bag [Brando] → Read More
I always say that what makes two people friends is what they have in common, but I think it’s not about having similar likes, it’s about having similar dislikes. What you hate says a lot more about you than what you love. In that spirit, I bring you the first CrunchGear What’s Worse?, where we take something vile from the technology world and something dreadful from the rest of the world and ask you, the readers, the question: Which one do you hate more? For our inaugural story, I’d like to know: which do you hate more, Windows Vista or Paris Hilton? Truly a heavyweight match if ever there was one. One only works on the most up-to-date hardware, the other only works in nightvision. One is a resource-sucking, over-rated, over-the-top waste of space, the other is an operating system. So I ask you, the readers, which is worse? Windows Vista or Paris Hilton? Begin the debate! Don’t forget to include your email address when you comment, as one lucky winner will get a Creative Travelsound i50 iPod Shuffle speaker thing, picked at random on Monday the 3rd! → Read More
There’s nothing particularly cavalier about hating the telecoms—we essentially get paid for it here—but there’s something almost noble in hating them for kowtowing to the Bush Administration, handing over private data for the good of the War on Terror. We may not have to hate much longer, since the Electronic Frontier Federation yesterday won a court ruling mandating that the Bush Administration reveal any and all communications between it and the telecoms—who lobbied whom, who buttered whose bread (and on what side), etc. See, there’s a bill currently making its was through Congress that would completely exonerate AT&T for breaking the law and handing over private data to the government. “Amnesty” is the word thrown around by the bill’s opponents. Not only would that legalize would AT&T did, but it would set the precedent that, hey, telecoms can do that now without having to answer to us, or anyone else. Wouldn’t that be great? “Hey, AT&T, thanks for handing over my private data. I love you guys.” The court has given the Bush Administration until December 10 to comply with the ruling, well before the bill slides its way into law. (The Administration had offered to make the requested documents available, but only after the bill became law. How considerate of it.) Do-nothing Congress, hah. It seems to be real adept at saving its friends’ bacon, that’s for sure. Notice how much the telecoms have donated to Mr. Rockefeller… Court orders Bush administration to disclose telecom lobbying ties. What about senators? [Salon.com via Slashdot] → Read More
Reports surfaced yesterday, and now we have the official word from Facebook. Users will now have to opt-in to share purchases via Beacon: Stories about actions users take on external websites will continue to be presented to users at the top of their News Feed the next time they return to Facebook. These stories will now always be expanded on their home page so they can see and read them clearly. Users must click on “OK” in a new initial notification on their Facebook home page before the first Beacon story is published to their friends from each participating site. We recognize that users need to clearly understand Beacon before they first have a story published, and we will continue to refine this approach to give users choice. If a user does nothing with the initial notification on Facebook, it will hide after some duration without a story being published. When a user takes a future action on a Beacon site, it will reappear and display all the potential stories along with the opportunity to click “OK” to publish or click “remove” to not publish. Users will have clear options in ongoing notifications to either delete or publish. No stories will be published if users navigate away from their home page. If they delay in making this decision, the notification will hide and they can make a decision at a later time. Clicking the “Help” link next to the story will take users to a full tutorial that explains exactly how Beacon works, with screenshots showing each step in the process. It seems like a win for users, although I’m sure the ramifications of this announcement will be dissected and considered in the hours and days to come. First impressions though: the immediate defaulting to privacy is sure to appease many critics, but the details may still raise some concerns, for example Facebook is still capturing this data, the only difference now is that it wont automatically share it. Will this be enough? advertisers will still be able to tap into Beacon for purchasing preferences and other details based on activity on Facebook so the privacy option is really only skin deep. (via AllFacebook) → Read More
I first met Sarah Meyers when she crashed our 2006 party at August Capital. She was booted, but got enough video footage to make this video. This year she was back at the party, but as an invitee – see one of her videos here. Meyers now lives in New York, and has been working on a new live daily tech show. It hasn’t officially launched, but her first shows started streaming earlier this week at PopSnap.net. The show shows live daily. A time will eventually be nailed down, she says, but for now you have to check the calendar (powered by 30Boxes) to see exactly when it goes on the air. When the show is not being shown live, the last show is played on a loop. Eventually, clicking on the video will start it from the beginning. Users can comment on the show via an embedded meebo chat widget. The show itself is powered by Mogulus, a live streaming video startup we covered back in June. The show is clearly still working through some kinks, so be kind. But Sarah’s charisma comes out strongly in these first few episodes, and it’s clear that she will have a large following of loyal viewers. Check out the show now and give your feedback through the chat widget. The site will officially launch in December, and archives will become available then. We are going to be one of the charter sponsors of the show. Update: Well, she shut the site down. CrunchBase Information Meebo Mogulus Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
Apparently EMI isn’t the only major label in trouble. Warner’s CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. tried to remain upbeat during a conference call recently despite Warner only making $5million on $869million worth of sales, translating into a healthy profit margin of a little more than half a percent. Considering the scale of their earnings, it’s not surprising that Warner may also be considering pulling its support from the RIAA and IFPI. “We continue to evaluate that situation,” said Bronfman. How illuminating; thank you, Edgar. He also suggested that the lineup of artists and releases this past year has been particularly weak. Of course, Warner’s artists list is like a who’s-who of pop music, and I just don’t understand how they could fail to profit with Christopher Cross, Rob Thomas, AND the Doobie Brothers on their roster. Kids these days just don’t know what they’re missing. Warner Music: We’re totally screwed [MatthewIngram.com, via paidContent.org] → Read More
Reuters reports that the British music industry biggie, EMI, is looking for ways to substantially reduce the amount of cash it hands out to those vicious child-suing trade groups known as the RIAA and IFPI. Times are tight, they say, and there is talk of saving and efficiency – and the so-called “copyright mafia” have been ineffective in curbing piracy. I guess they think that sending millions upon millions of pounds into a controversial and ineffective black hole is not a smart investment. There’s nothing solid yet (they credit a “source”), but if a major like this drops its support for the trade groups, it could start an avalanche. Here’s hoping. EMI wants to cut funding to trade groups -source [Reuters] → Read More
Dow Jones’ MarketWatch may not display stock information about particular companies as well as its competitors, such as Google Finance, newly redesigned AOL Money & Finance, or even Yahoo Finance, but it has taken the initiative to develop a new portfolio tool that tops them all. Whereas the others’ portfolio tools are still stuck with clunky interfaces that provide limited information, MarketWatch has developed an Ajax-based tool that enables you to thoroughly compare the performances of selected stocks side-by-side. During market hours, the tool will even update the stocks’ performances – and the investments you have made in them – automatically so you don’t need to refresh the page. I checked out the portfolio tools of MarketWatch’s competitors (consisting primarily of free services such as those mentioned above) and was surprised to see how primitive they are, especially compared to some of their other financial features. Google Finance, for example, has a great Flash-based, interactive timeline for particular stocks but only a very stripped-down view of stock information when viewed in a portfolio. MarketWatch’s new tool makes it easy to add stocks to a portfolio, organize them with tags, and view many performance metrics. In one well-laid-out chart, you can track your stocks’ most recent prices, price changes as percentages, price changes within ranges, trade volumes, price charts, and news. You can also see outstanding shares, 52-week highs and lows, market caps, P/E ratios, EPSs, yields, and dividends. The value of this upgrade is best understood in relation to the other tools out there, so I’ve provided screenshots of the others below. → Read More
That was weird now get your ‘stank skank ass out’. → Read More
These tiny video players are available at ThinkGeek.com for $100 each. One’s got a 2.8-inch display and one has a 2.4-inch display. How do you like that? They’ve each got 2GB of memory and can handle AVI and MPEG videos as well as MP3 audio. They also have a built-in FM tuner, a speaker, text viewer, picture viewer, and games. How’d they do that?! Battery life lasts 3-4 hours for video and 6-8 hours for audio. Credit Card Size Digital Video Player [ThinkGeek.com] → Read More
We like Diesel Sweeties, the daily online comic strip by the handsome R Stevens. It’s pixelated in a nice way, and is about love, life, and music in the Internet-connected age. And some of the fake girls are totally doable. When Stevens runs a strip with a gadgety theme, you’ll find it here on CrunchGear as well. Newspapers have a comics page, now blogs do, too. Diesel Sweeties [Fun!] → Read More
I must warn you that this will be the shortest review of a phone we’ve ever done at CrunchGear. Why you may ask? Because we’ve already covered it extensively and filled you in on the specs. So I’m really only going to cover the touch interface and voice quality. That’s all there really is to write about. No need to get into the Verizon features as they haven’t changed. → Read More
Amazon.com has the Nintendo Wii version of Call of Duty 3 for just under $30, which includes free shipping. As a Wii owner and FPS enthusiast, I can tell you that this game is the least disappointing of the first person shooters that I’ve tried and one of the least disappointing games I’ve played on the Wii. It’s a fun, albeit short romp through the battlefields of World War II with pretty good graphics and a pretty solid control scheme. There’s some talk about Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare being released for the Wii sooner or later so that might have something to do with the price drop, although just about everywhere else is still charging $50 for this game. For $30, though, I’d buy it without any hesitation. Call Of Duty 3 [Amazon.com] via FatWallet → Read More
Miomi, a digital lifestyle aggregator (DLA) I talked about back in October, is officially unveiling itself to the world now. Incorporating content from Encarta and Wikipedia, you can plot your own historical progress through time by uploading your personal take on events be it through words, pictures or video. You can choose to share this the world or just with your friends on the site. So far they’ve had over 120,000 sign-ups. The brainchild of three German post-graduate students, Thomas Whitfield (25) of Oxford University, Charly Toni (26) and Richard Schreiber (26) from the Technical University of Munich, the startup secured funding from Brightstation Ventures and is part of the Microsoft Startup Accelerator Programme, presumably because they are a showcase for MS tech. It’s been a fast track. They pitched the idea to the Oxford University “Idea Idol” competition in February this year, got the backing, moved to London, recruited Jonny Crowe as CEO and launched the beta in October. DLA’s like Miomi essentially work on a business model of hooking in users, and by the time they’ve realised they’ve uploaded a lifetime’s worth of content it’s way too late to pull out. Smart. However, Miomi’s policy on data retention will need to take into account whatever happens to Facebook, following the Information Commissioner’s investigation into the social network for retaining user data after they have requested it be deleted. Microsoft is calling it “the UK’s answer to Skype and YouTube” which seems somewhat far-fetched. → Read More
We all knew it was coming. The announcement that Apple would stop supporting the Boot Camp beta some time after Leopard came out was not well received, but once people figured out it didn’t mean their partition was going to self-destruct, they seemed okay with it. Well, the time has come. December 31st will the last day of support for the long-running beta, after which time the partition helper app “Assistant” will cease to work (kind of suspicious) but your XP or Vista install will remain bootable. Yes, it’s all very sad, but the problems of one obsolete little OS don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Besides, we’ll always have Parallels. Apple: Boot Camp beta expires Dec. 31 [InfoWorld] → Read More
AT&T has reportedly pulled a $27.99-per-month data-only iPhone plan that had previously been offered to the hard of hearing and deaf. I remember seeing a lady with a Sidekick WAY back when they first came out and when I excitedly stopped her to high-five about being Sidekick owners, she replied that she used one because she works with the deaf. The iPhone would tend to be a similarly useful device but it seems ludicrous to pay for voice calls when you’re never, ever going to need to use the phone. Boo, AT&T. Boo, hiss. AT&T puts the kibosh on voice-free iPhone plans for the deaf [TUAW] → Read More
Search startup True Knowledge, reviewed here, is seeking beta testers for its API service. The UK startup, which recently won Angel funding, has developed an application which (deep breath) represents facts as entities within a broad knowledge-base that computers can understand and process. It answers question through deduction and cross-referencing to produce what looks, to all intents and purposes, like a human response. Ask it if Ben Affleck is married and it will come back with “Yes” rather than lots of web pages which may or may not have the answer. TK is going to leverage its API in a variety of ways. For instance, over 2.1 million geographical places are registered as entities in True Knowledge’s database, plus time zones. So in theory web and tele-conferencing services could use this to help you place calls at the right time for both parties across the planet. Currently this can be tricky as there is basically no logic to local time changes but, says founder William Tunstall-Pedoe, having TK’s API integrated into the website of a conference service provider could solve this. Check out www.trueknowledge.com/api/ Here’s a video of what True Knowledge is all about. The Jennifer Lopez example is pretty convincing… → Read More
It’s been less than two weeks since Google penalized PayPerPost bloggers in the most devastating way possible – by resetting all of their PageRanks to zero and effectively removing them from the Internet. PayPerpost, now called IZEA, is in the process of launching RealRank, an alternative way to rank blogs. But their advertisers are still looking for blogs with an actual PageRank to write about them (this helps with the SEO effort). The result? Freaked out PPP shills who are going to have to find a real job. Bloggers are expressing their angst on forum thread. Among the more pathetic messages: Oh. My. God. Oh my god! I can’t believe this is happening. I NEED to earn money with my blogs, I’m going to have to take every single opp I qualify for every day in order to keep up with expenses. and this, from someone lamenting a negative comment on their blog (the second paragraph is a winner): I’m trying to develop a thicker skin, I really am. But this is my livelihood, you know? This is important to me. When I started with PPP, I never thought I would still be doing it seven months later, or that I would care about it so much. And since when is independence and paid blogging mutually exclusive? There is choice involved. So much for the claims by PayPerPost that their bloggers only write about products they actually believe in. PayPerPost isn’t dead, but a big chunk of their advertisers are clearly bailing now that the SEO value of paid posts is gone. That’s bad news for the shill blogs that rely on PPP to pay the bills, but good for the blogosphere in general. CrunchBase Information PayPerPost Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
New York City
San Francisco, CA
